Sometimes you just can't please customers and make the profits you want at the same time.

That may be the dilemma facing Fidelity National Information Solutions (FNIS) in its solutions division which accounts for 20 percent of the company's revenues, according to first quarter revenues.

FNIS is the undisputed leader in real estate data management. The company aggregates public records with current MLS information on properties for sale and recent solds and organizes the data into accessible programs for use by members of client MLSs. The company also manages hardware and software support for MLSs that it acquired with the purchase of VISTA/info/MooreData MLS information management systems over a year ago.

FNIS bought access to a large number of agents, brokers and MLSs. VISTA MLS systems serve about half the nation's Realtors, about 335,000 out of 750,000, according to a FNIS spokesperson.

But VISTA's products weren't widely liked by agents despite its market share, FNIS quickly learned. Sentiment against the products was strong in many key areas including North Texas and Boston's MLSPIN, as recounted in earlier Agent News stories. These issues dated back to the late 1990s when VISTA purchased Moore Data information management systems, and continue to haunt FNIS today.

What happened was that VISTA/Moore executives used agents' and MLSs' fear of technology to sell agents into a planned roll-out of MLS access software products, some of which they didn't really need. In most but not all cases, depending on the MLS' contract with VISTA/Moore, agents were started on dial-up software that dialed into the MLS' legacy system. In some MLSs, a second program was then deployed to the agents to access the system with a Windows interface and other features. A third software program was sold to them to access the system with an Internet interface. This would have been fine if it had been an issue of availability, but the better software was withheld like waterfront lots. Worse, Moore served as a reseller for some products and deliberately left out key modules for some products that caused agents to have to upgrade to other products during the planned roll-out. Some agents weaned themselves off early software and others didn't, leaving new owner FNIS with higher support costs as it tried to provide support for Moore's outdated products.

Complaints that software was delivered without promised features or that it had "bugs" were rampant. In one case, acrimony resulted in a lawsuit between the Boston area MLSPIN and Moore Data. An out of court settlement directed Moore to fix the bugs, which some close to the case said did occur.

Unhappy customers like MLSPIN allowed new MLS information management companies to start up with new Internet-based parallel systems to provide greater flexibility to the older legacy systems. Within one year of introducing its parallel system, HomeSeekers was reportedly serving over 200,000 agents, and poised to displace service providers like VISTA/info and Interealty with its nimbler Internet-based MLS system, which it in fact did with SoCalMLS just this year.

Why do MLSs need parallel systems if they already have a functioning legacy system? Parallel systems merely download the data to another server as insurance should the legacy system go down. It also provides another access route for users, and it allows third-party companies to access and interact with the data. For example, on Boston's legacy system, agents can't enter add and change listings because of contamination risks to the primary data, but they can do so on a parallel system. Parallel systems can also be road-tested by MLSs in anticipation of purchase without a major conversion from the legacy system.

As it dawned on FNIS that the parallel systems were more popular with customers, easier to maintain and support, and that the parallel systems were a surer bet to retaining more agent seats, the company had to have faced this question: How much support do we continue to provide to outdated legacy system software? A large number of access products raises support costs without supplying new revenues.

FNIS bought a large number of customers, but many of these were at risk of being lost to other MLS information vendors. Realizing this, FNIS quickly followed the purchase of VISTA with RISCO information systems and the MLS information division of HomeSeekers, and has been pushing a new flagship "Paragon" system as a parallel and stand-alone system to MLS's legacy systems. But in buying the customer bases of these smaller parallel systems, FNIS may have bought some of the same customer base twice. Meanwhile, the company is still facing complaints and support issues over older software from customers in Knoxville, North Texas and Boston, to name a few.

If Paragon is FNIS's best bet to retain market share, should FNIS continue to support the older products or push the MLSs to adopt Paragon?

According to Tim Harrison, executive vice president of FNIS' MLS Systems Division, the company is not discontinuing support of older system software, but it is also aggressively pushing Paragon. The company has contracts with 412 out of 800 MLSs and has already converted 200 MLSs to Paragon.

"As we come out with Internet-based products, agents can access the system through Realigent's Lightning 2000, or through the browser, it is what the agents are comfortable using," says Harrison. "We have to support more products and we continue to do that, and there won't be much to upgrading those products."

Published: July 17, 2002

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